In recent years, drone technologies have been explored for a range of applications in conservation including (but not limited to) mapping, biodiversity inventories, antipoaching patrols, wildlife tracking, and fire monitoring. The rise of customizable, open-source drones like those of ArduPilot and OpenROV hold promise for more effective conservation applications, and combined with other monitoring sensors and devices, they are capable of collecting high-resolution data quickly, noninvasively, and at relatively low cost.
However, challenges remain in putting these tools to use. A recent paper reviewing 256 conservation drone projects highlighted some of these major obstacles, ranging from unintended social and ecological consequences of drone operations to still prohibitive costs, both in terms of hardware and in terms of storing and processing large volumes of data. The longstanding challenge of power/battery life remains as well.
If you're considering trying out drones for yourself, and want to explore the possibilities and understand the major conversations happening around this technology, check out these beginner's resources and conversations from across the WILDLABS platform:
Three Resources for Beginners:
- Conservation Technology User Guidelines Issue 5: Drones, World Wildlife Fund | Drones, best practices, ethics, regulations, case studies
- WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Recording: Drones, Craig Elder, Dr. Claire Burke, and Gabriel Levin | Drones, thermal camera, wildlife crime, ML, biologging
- New Paper: Drones and Bornean Orangutan Distribution, Sol Milne | Drones, data analysis, citizen science, community science, primates
Three Forum Threads for Beginners:
- Curious about radio-tracking with drones? | Wildlife Drones, Biologging (5 replies)
- Drones for GIS Best practice Document | Adrian Hughes, Drones (10 replies)
- WWF Conservation Technology Series: Drones in Conservation | Aurélie Shapiro, Drones (7 replies)
Three Tutorials for Beginners:
- How do I use a drone to capture radio-tracking data? | Debbie Saunders, Tech Tutors
- How do I choose the right drone for my conservation goals? | Shashank Srinivasan, Tech Tutors
- How do I strategically allocate drones for conservation? | Elizabeth Bondi, Tech Tutors
Want to know more about using drones, and learn from experts in the WILDLABS community? Make sure you join the conversation in our Drones group!
*Header photo: Parker Levinson, Point Blue Conservation Science
- @nancyalice
- | she/her
Conservation Communicator | Technology for Wildlife Foundation (TfW)
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 10 Groups
- @serena.le
- | she/her
Conservation tech enthusiast
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 25 Groups
- @Tysmucker
- | He/Him
Wildlife Biologist/Conflict Specialist and drone enthusiast in Montana
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
I'm a wildlife ecologist with interests in a range of technology.
- 0 Resources
- 22 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @stienheremans
- | she/her
Remote sensing researcher for environmental monitoring and nature conservation/restoration
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 5 Groups
Movement Ecologist studying the where, why, and how animals move throughout our world. Current work is investigating the movement and energetics of large neotropical bats in a changing environment with ephemeral resources.
- 0 Resources
- 23 Discussions
- 22 Groups
- @tomwhite101
- | He/Him
Agroecology Geek
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 12 Groups
BSc Forest Engineering, MSc GIS Sciences, Drone researcher
- 2 Resources
- 11 Discussions
- 5 Groups
University of British Columbia
Postdoc at UBC, exploring how drones enhance wildlife conservation using thermal cameras & AI tools to refine monitoring of large mammal populations in Canada & compare these approaches to traditional methods.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @SareachChea
- | Sareach
Conservation International
I graduated in Ms of Entomology, and currently I work with Conservation International Cambodia as Biodiversity and Science Senior Coordinator.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @Heloise
- | She / Her
Bio-acoustician, marine biologist, marine mammal specialist, drone enthusiast
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Funding
The 2020 Tusk Awards are now accepting nominations of outstanding individuals who have made a significant impact on conservation in Africa. These nominations offer the rare and exciting opportunity to honor your peers...
3 March 2020
Article
How do you weigh a live whale?
WILDLABS Team
How do we actually know a whale weighs 40 tonnes? After all, we can’t exactly capture an animal the size of a bus and simply put it on a scale. Fredrik Christiansen explains their new, non-invasive way of weighing...
9 October 2019
Article
From the Field: Melissa Schiele
WILDLABS Admin
In this From the Field interview, we talk to Melissa Schiele, a tech whiz, marine ecologist, and conservationist at the Zoological Society of London. She shares with us about her work helping to develop the first-ever...
10 June 2019
Article
Canopy height mapping with drones
Tom Swinfield
Tom Swinfield and colleagues at the Forest Ecology and Conservation Group have assessed the quality of three dimensional forest models produced from drone surveys, and conclude that concerns about their quality for...
31 May 2019
Article
In this blog, Laure Joanny adds her perspectives to an ongoing discussion that we've been seeing in the community about conservation tech and it's relationship to e-waste. How do we tackle the challenge of battery waste...
3 May 2019
Article
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Our Favourites from 2019
WILDLABS Team
Happy World Wildlife Day! To celebrate, this week we've asked our community to share photos showing how they are using tech in the field or the lab, using the #Tech4Wildlife hashtag.
3 March 2019
Article
Using Swiss AI and Drones to Count African Wildlife
WILDLABS Team
After a promising first run in Namibia, a Swiss project could aid savanna conservation using drones and automatic image analysis.
18 February 2019
Article
Getting up close and personal with Antarctica's orcas
WILDLABS Team
In this case study, Science Reporter Jamie Morton tells the story of how Kiwi scientists are teaming up with a local underwater robotics company to gain world-first insights into the lives of whales in Antarctica.
4 February 2019
Article
A recent online video of a baby bear's efforts to scale a steep cliff took what seemed like an inspirational moment viral. But after the initial enthusiasm for the video came some controversy when scientists pointed out...
22 November 2018
Article
In this case study, WILDLABS member Sol Milne takes us through his Ph.D. work investigating how changing land-use is affecting orangutan distribution in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. With the help of five local research...
22 October 2018
Article
Rangerbot, an underwater drone that can accurately identify and fire an injection into crown-of-thorns starfish, is ready to be put to the test on the Great Barrier Reef. The concept for RangerBot won the 2016 Google...
18 September 2018
Article
Technology now frequently used in wildlife conservation is evolving at a rapid pace, with improvements promised to make research applications and integration with other technology easier, faster, and smarter. In this...
23 August 2018
December 2023
November 2023
event
Stephanie O'Donnell
33 Products
Recently updated products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi Donya! You might check out the Conservation Tech Directory to see what projects/organizations/tools best align with your interests and skills. |
|
Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones | 1 year 11 months ago | |
| Do you have a wild animal tracking story that involves adventure or misadventure? Share it with us! From going around in circles for hours... |
|
Animal Movement, Citizen Science, Drones, Geospatial | 2 years ago | |
| GeoNadir and OpenDroneMap might be of interest for drones?The Conservation Tech Directory might have some additional projects/tools of note. |
|
Data management and processing tools, Drones | 2 years 1 month ago | |
| Following up here... a few of us huddled virtually and assembled standardized metadata, standardized sample code, and sample annotated images for all the datasets on that list.... |
|
Drones | 2 years 1 month ago | |
| Hi Jeremy, With a quick search I've found the paper linked below. It looks like equipments such as Livox MID are sufficient for plot-level analyses, but not for individual... |
|
Drones, Earth Observation 101 Community, Emerging Tech, Geospatial, Sensors | 2 years 1 month ago | |
| Thank you so much for your reply! I'll look in to this now :) |
|
Acoustics, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Geospatial, Software Development | 2 years 1 month ago | |
| I couldn't agree more with both of these comments tom! I'm reading hundreds (literally hundreds) of applications for open WILDLABS roles at the moment, and the ones that stand out... |
+2
|
AI for Conservation, Drones, Early Career, Sensors | 2 years 2 months ago | |
| Hi all,I've been quickly developing in-house drone services in the UK for Providence Ecological and have found some useful information for building a workflow with Rich... |
+8
|
Geospatial, Drones | 2 years 2 months ago | |
| Hi folks, @Lars_Holst_Hansen asked this over on twitter and hasn't had any replies yet, so I thought it might be something that... |
|
Drones | 2 years 3 months ago | |
| Bluesky have a commercial tree crown dataset available covering most of Great Britain (England, Wales and parts of Scotland). There is a canopy layer with approximate outlines of... |
|
AI for Conservation, Drones | 2 years 3 months ago | |
| My original background is in ecology and conservation, and am now in the elected leadership of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware which convenes researchers developing open... |
|
AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Emerging Tech, Sensors | 2 years 4 months ago | |
| Hey Sol, The only way for you to collect information from a GPS tag attached to a FAD is if that tag transmits that data to the drone. Unfortunately most receiver packages... |
|
Drones, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 2 years 6 months ago |
